Steerpike

After a number of pranksters attempted to infiltrate Labour's voting system, the party had to take extreme steps in order to weed out these chancers. One joker who won't be prevented from voting for Corbyn is Josie Long. The award-winning stand-up comedian joined the leadership hopeful last night at his Arts for Everyone event: https://twitter.com/Corbyn4Leader/status/638792930392711169 Prior to attending the event, Long explained on Twitter why she has become a Corbynista, but said she has doubts about how much sway she has since the country is governed by Tories and she has always voted left. 'If I had any political influence we wouldn't have a Tory government,' she muses: https://twitter.

With Alex Salmond currently engaged in a war of words with Nick Robinson over the BBC's 'disgraceful' coverage of the Scottish referendum, there is one former Beeb employee he can turn to in his time of need. Step forward Paul Mason. Mason -- who worked as Newsnight's economics editor before defecting to Channel 4 -- joined Salmond on stage at the Edinburgh book festival to plant a few blows in the direction of his ex-employer. Despite pleas from Nicola Sturgeon for the BBC to enhance its presence in Scotland with a BBC Scotland TV channel, the PostCapitalism: A Guide to Our Future author said the BBC's unionist values were part and parcel of the corporation: 'I'm absolutely sure that the BBC believes it is a unionist institution.

Oh dear. Although Lord Ashcroft said he would be pleasantly surprised if Anthony Seldon's biography of David Cameron offered anything more than 'a sanitised account' of his time in Number 10, an excerpt in today's Mail on Sunday should make interesting reading for Boris Johnson.

It's fair to say that the appointment of Ed Miliband’s ex-campaign director Spencer Livermore to the House of Lords hasn't gone down well in Labour circles. Harriet Harman was said to be in a battle to get a similar honour for her own press chief Ayesha Hazarika if Livermore got one, but her name was absent from yesterday's Dissolution Peerages. Now word reaches Steerpike that party members are questioning what exactly Livermore -- who also worked on Gordon Brown’s election-that-never-was back in 2007 -- is being rewarded for. While Mr S is yet to learn the answer, it is fair to rule out his election judgment. On polling day, Livermore wrote a blog claiming the BBC's exit poll looked 'wrong'.

It's official, Jeremy Corbyn has made it. Following in the lines of all the greats, the left wing messiah has inspired such fan devotion that people are genuinely bidding on items just because he may have touched them. The item in question is a a coffee cup that his lips allegedly once met: The seller claims Corbyn gifted her the political artefact following a talk he gave in Nottingham: 'Ok this is obviously aimed at a niche interest group but Jeremy handed me his empty coffee cup at tonight's gathering outside the Playhouse in Nottingham. I realise most people would have put it in the bin but I asked what would JC do and concluded that if people in need benefit, it would be ok. I hope he agrees or at least understands. So I am auctioning it to benefit Age UK Notts.

With reports starting to claim that the next global financial crisis is on the horizon, one could be forgiven for thinking it's all doom and gloom. So Steerpike was cheered to see that Labour's former king of spin Damian McBride is on hand to put everyone's minds at rest. McBride says that he has been preparing for the day for a while now: https://twitter.com/DPMcBride/status/635693335055876096 As a result, he's perfectly placed to offer a three-point guide on how to respond to the nascent crash. He says it's time to get cash out from your bank, stock up on bottled water and work out a safe meeting point among your friends and family: https://twitter.com/DPMcBride/status/635789840316022784 https://twitter.com/DPMcBride/status/635790013331079168 https://twitter.

Louise Mensch has once again become the subject of much ridicule online over something she has tweeted. The incident occurred last night after the former Tory MP claimed Jeremy Corbyn's supporters — who have recently been accused of being anti-semitic — were insulting Corbyn's Labour leadership rival Liz Kendall. Mensch claimed that Twitter's autocomplete function showed that the most common search words to appear by Liz Kendall's name were 'Nazi', 'Zionist' and 'Jews'. To prove this Mensch even offered a photo of the 'auto searches' to demonstrate the 'sewer that is Jeremy Corbyn's support'. Alas there was a catch.

Although Tatler received a boost to its readership following the BBC's 'Posh People: Inside Tatler', a fly-on-the-wall documentary about the magazine, for some 'posh people' the society bible has long been essential reading. One such man who fits this description is none other than the current Chancellor of the Exchequer. Thanks to Tatler's Bystander archive, Mr S has been granted a glimpse into the 21st birthday celebrations of a young Gideon Osborne. https://twitter.com/sophiamcoutts/status/634681872321265664 His party was covered by the magazine back in 1992, and shows that Osborne enjoyed a bash at the trendy Groucho club where guests toasted him 'endlessly' with champagne.

Oh dear. Andy Burnham's efforts of late to appeal to Jeremy Corbyn's left-wing voters may have gone to waste after an email blip this morning. Steerpike understands that he has risked the wrath of one of the unions after an official looking email was circulated to members of Unite, the trade union, urging them to vote for Burnham. With Unite backing Corbyn, members were surprised to receive the email, from Joyce Still and Steve Hibbert of the union’s executive council, asking them to support Burnham in the leadership race: https://twitter.com/Disabled_Carer/status/634271590520332289 https://twitter.com/unitetheunion/status/634307384710668288 Unite has been quick to distance itself from both the emails and Burnham.